Saturday, September 30, 2017

Trump Says His Pals Go To Africa To ‘Get Rich.’ Is That Offensive?

Last week, President Donald Trump hosted a luncheon for a group of African heads of state in New York City as part of the U.N. General Assembly. He told his guests, which included the leaders of Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, “I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they’re spending a lot of money.”

The comment was part of an address on what Trump called Africa’s “tremendous business potential.”

CNN wrote about the address under the headline “Donald Trump’s comments on Africa at the UN were, um, odd.”

And indeed, some in the global African community were outraged by the “get rich” remark, saying it conjured images of the continent’s colonialist past.

But others praised it.

NPR asked three African entrepreneurs to share their perspectives.

For Manyang Reath Kher, a Lost Boy of Sudan who is now living in Richmond, Virginia, the question that came to his mind after hearing Trump’s comment: “How do you get rich in a poor country?”

And here’s his answer: “You buy stuff for a very cheap price, bring it [to the U.S.], and get a profit out of it. The people who are local never benefit,” he says. “Congo is one of the richest in natural resources in the world, but the country is very poor. Who are the [oil]wells going to?”

And he believes that when Trump refers to his “friends” he means international business people who exploit the poor for their “personal wealth,” which, he says, has been happening since Africa was first colonized by Europeans.

Kher himself is trying to bring more money into Africa — and he knows how hard it is to do business in a way that doesn’t exploit local workers. He founded 734 Coffee, a company that sells Ethiopian coffee and donates a portion of his proceeds to Sudanese refugees, and faced a mountain of paperwork to get started.

He says that it’s easier for big, international coffee conglomerates to buy beans in countries like Ethiopia. They have the money and power to negotiate and control the terms of sales in their favor, not the local farmers and agricultural workers.

Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, a Zambian attorney, 2014 Aspen New Voices fellow and founder of the Kampala-based Hoja Law Group, is more optimistic about Trump’s remark.

“Trump sees another side of Africa that typically American leaders don’t voice,” she says.

She hopes his remark could lead to a discussion on Africa’s potential. “It’s the first time, at least during my lifetime, that there’s a positive outlook on opportunities for Africa,” she told NPR via Skype from Kampala, Uganda. “Are we going to see business as usual [from the U.S. government], as far as [them]focusing on social and military issues, or are we going to see commercial opportunities?”

Musiitwa, whose law firm represents governments and corporations in the U.S., Europe and Africa, says the onus now is on Africa to do business that’s beneficial to Africans. “Let’s make roads that go from one country to another. Let’s improve rail networks. Let’s improve telecommunications, let’s improve power, energy so we can manufacture, so we too can trade with the rest of the world.”

Ola Orekunrin Brown, a Nigerian-British medical doctor based in Lagos, says that Trump said what needed to be heard.

“If we try to take a positive view of his comment, then I think he’s being less condescending and a lot more helpful to us Africans,” says Brown, who is also a helicopter pilot and the managing director of the Flying Doctors, a for-profit air ambulance service that works in West Africa.

“We need to be talking about business, making money, profit,” she says. “And he said those words. It’s been a long time since I heard those words being used in relation to Africa like he did.”

What she’s used to hearing are comments from development agencies about bringing more foreign aid to Africa for health, education and other needs: “They’ve concentrated on the alleviation of poverty at the expense of creating prosperity,” says Brown. “For a lot of African countries, it’s produced a lot of dependency to aid.”

“From my perspective,” she adds, “Trump’s comment encourages people to view Africa as a destination for trade and entrepreneurship. [Poverty] will continue to be a problem until we can employ more people.”

FROM THE ARCHIVES: THE AMBROSE EHIRIM-CHIKA UNIGWE INTERVIEW

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: INTERVIEW: THE SYLVESTER MENSAH STORY

The idea of writing a book had always engaged my thoughts based on reflections and the desire to share my experiences. The motivation was however triggered after reading the book of a gentleman l consider the busiest in Ghana, H. E. John Dramani Mahama

FROM THE ARCHIVES: INTERVIEW: DR. APOLLOS NWAUWA

Contrary to what many think, the Igbo Diaspora is not really a homogenous, coherent group. Like other ethnic nationalities in the USA, the Igbo Diaspora consists of peoples from all walks of life separated by everything and only united by the fact that they are all Igbo. Serious social class disparity exists between them; therefore, presenting a united front in influencing or engineering actions at home continues to be a challenge.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: INTERVIEW: OZO'S KENI SAINT GEORGE

It was indeed a very boisterous, purpose driven, well-to-do Royal family. I come from a lineage of Royals and a well groomed family unit. My Father, Chief George Ozuloke, was a Court Judge for all of 18 years. He was both a Christian and Animist. He had 7 wives of which my mother was the first. I went to St. Martins Primary School and later to a wonderful School – Abbot Secondary Grammar School in Ihiala, my town. I even did a stint in Ihiala Seminary trying to be a Catholic Priest

FROM THE ARCHIVES: INTERVIEW: JULIUS KPADUWA

The problems that confront Imo State are really not unique. It is the same problem that confronts almost every state in Nigeria, and it's one of economic development. The primary thing or my clear vision for the people of Imo State will be getting all the able-bodied men and women back to work, so that we can begin to have the quality of life that has so far eluded the people of Imo State.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: THE OTOKOTO SAGA INTERVIEW

Earlier this year, in January, it was reported in the country’s dailies that your father and six others had been condemned to death. Those condemned with your father were: Alban Ajaegbu, Sampson Nnamito, Ebenezer Egwuekwe, Rufus Anyanwu, Lawrence Eboh, and Chief Leonard Unogu. How is your dad related to the names I have mentioned?

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Where We Met

But seeing a Nigeria headline on my screen it then occurred to him I must either be a Nigerian or perhaps a curious minded fellow who is reading to find out about the notorious Boko Haram, if they have captured more of their victims, or if there's an ongoing battle between the insurgents and the nation's security forces. Elevating my head up and starring at each other, I told him I was Igbo

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Ambrose Ehirim is a blogger, a writer, a photo-journalist, a volunteer and teacher. He has published articles and essays in African Times, African Watch, Pace News, Los Angeles Weekly, Life & Time Magazine, Kilima, American Chronicle, Long Beach Sentinel, Reuters and many other publications. He was former editor of New Life and West Coast Bureau Chief at the BNW Magazine. An Anti-Igbo Pogrom scholar and researcher, and currently working on and researching the 'Eastside Groups and Bands' Vintage Years.'

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